The next day, the entire USC team took a plane to Indiana.
Their game against the Louisville Cardinals will be on March 29th at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis!
So there is only one day left for them!
Lucas Oil Stadium is a multi-purpose sports venue with an automatic retractable roof and is the home stadium of the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League.
It is precisely because its roof is automatically retractable that the NCAA hosted the Southern California vs. Louisville game in this venue.
Ordinary old-fashioned open-air stadiums cannot hold indoor basketball games. For example, the Memorial Gymnasium of the University of Antarctica is one of the top gymnasiums in the United States, and it is also the home stadium of the University of Southern California. However, because it is an open-air gymnasium, it is not suitable for basketball.
Competition use!
Lucas Oil Stadium is quite young, construction began in 2005 and was only completed in 2008.
And since it was originally intended to be used as a football venue, the auditorium arrangement is also very spacious. This stadium can accommodate 70,000 spectators to watch the game!
This is a whole circle bigger than the previous arena!
After all the USC players arrived in Indianapolis, they took the bus to Lucas Oil Stadium in the afternoon.
There is no way to be tight on time, they need to be familiar with the venue as soon as possible!
Because the NCAA Midwest Regional Finals will be held, the entire venue has been decorated to resemble a basketball competition venue.
Although Lian Dao also played a lot of games, he still felt insignificant when he stood in the gym and looked around.
This time they simply shot the ball in the new venue to get a feel for it and get used to the competition venue.
Adapt to the new environment!
…
Back at the hotel, Tim rewatched the previous game between the Louisville Cardinals and the Kansas Jayhawks with the players.
In fact, the Louisville Cardinals were very similar to the University of Southern California in the previous game, both came back against the odds in the last ten minutes.
But the difference is that the overall strength of the Louisville Cardinals is not as good as the Kansas Jayhawks. They have been beaten by the Kansas Jayhawks in the first three quarters of the game, and the score gap was once led by the Kansas Jayhawks.
But the Kansas Jayhawks got careless in the fourth quarter.
After establishing an advantage in the first half and the first ten minutes of the second half, I felt that the game was certain to be won. I numbed my carelessness and allowed the Louisville Cardinals to seize the opportunity and directly overtake the score.
This also has a problem with the experience of the young players of the Kansas State Jayhawks. After playing the downwind game for a long time, once the score is overtaken, I don’t know how to fight, and the overall morale will never rise again. In the end, I saw the defense of the Kansas State Jayhawks and
The offensive formation was in chaos.
If the Kansas Jayhawks make no mistakes in the last ten minutes, then USC will face the Kansas Jayhawks in this game!
But in comparison, USC would rather play the Louisville Cardinals!
"DeMar, do you think the Louisville Cardinals have a chance to beat us?"
Lian Dao wants to see what DeMar thinks about the Louisville Cardinals.
"I don't think it's possible. Vucevic is back in this game. We have a big advantage against them. The most important thing is that we won't make the same mistakes as the Kansas Jayhawks!"
Demar answered firmly, and he and Lian Dao also analyzed the overall strength of the next two teams.
In fact, Demar didn't understand the main reason why Lian Dao asked him this question just now!
What Lian Dao actually meant was don't underestimate the Louisville Cardinals.
Because before that, when the University of Southern California heard that they were playing against the Louisville Cardinals, everyone was overjoyed!
It seems like the Louisville Cardinals' No. 1 seed is fake.
This state is particularly similar to the state of some strong teams facing dark pony teams, thus psychologically underestimating their opponents.
If all the strong teams treat the dark horse team like this, think that the dark horse team is a weak persimmon, and want to pinch it, then the final result will be that the dark horse team will be black to the end!
But fortunately, with Tim here, he is not just filled with excitement like the players!
He constantly reminded his players of the lessons of the Kansas Jayhawks' failure.
All the team members have calmed down safely. They have finally reached this point and do not want to fail because they underestimated their opponents. If they miss out on entering the semi-finals or even the final due to carelessness, they will never forgive themselves in their lifetime!
After watching all the videos, Tim made some summaries of the game and then formulated some tactical arrangements.
They are all conventional tactics. Although there are still some tactics that USC has not used, they will be used at the last moment.
For the Louisville Cardinals, it's not time to use it yet!
Let me talk about Lian Dao’s impression of the Louisville Cardinals in the game just now.
That's their zone defense and protection of the basketball.
One of the most important reasons why they were able to comeback in the last game was their rebounding. In the last quarter, the Kansas Jayhawks kept missing outside shots due to physical reasons, and the Kansas Jayhawks failed to protect the rebounds, especially
It's an offensive rebound.
And they were unable to break through the Louisville Cardinals' zone defense in a short period of time, which caused the team's morale to plummet. As a result, they failed to recover and were directly overtaken by the opponent!
The two players who impressed Lian Dao the most were: Earl Clark and Terrence Williams.
Earl Clark is about the same size as Lian Dao. He is 2.06 meters tall and can swing at the forward position. He averages 8.7 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. He defends fiercely and is active in rebounding!
Terrence Williams, peak swingman, but mostly at small forward!
Lian Dao watched all his game videos and found that three years of college accumulation allowed him to break out in his senior year.
He has skilled offensive skills and confident mid-range shooting!
This season he showed everyone his explosive scoring ability.
The key is that he also has excellent defensive ability and rebounding, as well as excellent wing passing!
If it weren't for the fact that he is already a senior and is relatively older, his draft stock would have risen a few spots!
Although Terrence Williams showed his versatility this season, Lian Dao also discovered his shortcomings.
With continuous shooting ability, his shooting is very unstable. He mostly relies on layups after breakthroughs and has relatively few outside shots.
After watching all the videos, Lian Dao now has a basic understanding of his opponent!
What Lian Dao and the others didn't know was that just when they were feeling happy about playing the Louisville Cardinals.
The Louisville Cardinals were also very excited after knowing that their opponent was USC!
They believe that the University of Southern California is the biggest dark horse this season.
I think USC just took advantage of the fact that the overall strength of the Parker Ten Conference this season is not strong!
Especially Earl Clark, who kept clamoring to let Lian Dao taste what real iron-blooded defense is!
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
In fact, the last 16-to-8 game should have been held at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. I was crazy about the lake, so I just arranged the game at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.